UPDATE: Call for Papers: Special Issue of Journal of Popular Television - Deadline extended to July 30, 2014

full name / name of organization:

Ken Dvorak, PhD

contact email:

krdvorak@gmail.com

Call for Papers: Special Issue of Journal of Popular Television
Themed Issue: Extreme Reality TV
Co-Editors: Julie Anne Taddeo and Ken Dvorak (co-editors of The Tube Has Spoken: Reality TV & History, UPK, 2009)
The popular success of reality TV has prompted its producers to seek even more extreme and taboo subject matter, from individuals confessing addictions to eating diapers (My Strange Addiction, TLC) to those engaging in the swinging lifestyle (Secret Sex Lives: Swingers, Discovery Health). Has reality TV become the latest incarnation of the “freak show,” titillating viewers, or do these programs help to educate them, normalizing the extreme?
Our focus for this special issue is to define what sets the “extreme” apart from other types of reality TV; how do programs that showcase extreme behaviors, bodies, and lifestyles interrogate social/political/cultural concerns? We welcome contributions on American and international reality TV programs; authors must explain how they represent “extreme” in its various manifestations. We especially welcome submissions that examine “transmedia storytelling” that encourages viewers to explore additional content provided by social and traditional media outlets.